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A top US official has said that the United States is relying on Japan to help address strategic challenges in Europe and Asia that are straining its defense industries.

The US Ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, highlighted this need on Monday as the two nations began discussing enhancing military-industrial cooperation. “Our national security strategy calls for us to be able to handle one and a half theatres, that’s a major war and another one to a standoff, and with both the Middle East, Ukraine, and keeping our deterrence credible in this region (East Asia) you can already see that we are in two plus,” Emanuel stated.

Emanuel emphasized the urgency of this cooperation, noting, “China has a major capacity we already know that will surpass us on new shipbuilding.” The emphasis on shipbuilding was noteworthy, as US Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment William LaPlante and Japan’s head of Acquisition & Technology discussed creating naval repair facilities in Japan. The goal would be to relieve the pressure currently on US Shipyards, allowing the US to generate more naval vessels.

These talks came as Japan initiated its first round of talks at the US-Japan Forum on Defense Industrial Cooperation, Acquisition and Sustainment (DICAS). This forum, created in April through an agreement between Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and President Biden, aims to enhance defense industry collaboration.